The attempted rollout of a revamped California Bar Exam system in February 2025 was a disaster on multiple fronts. Issues with registration, scheduling, locations, and communication combined with fallout from the Los Angeles wildfires created stress and confusion.
Having already agreed to provide a free retake of the California Bar Exam for applicants who either failed the test or withdrew, the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) was willing to go one step further. The CBE recommended extending the Provisional Licensure Program to cover those caught up in the February testing imbroglio. The State Bar Board of Trustees postponed a vote until testing results are examined.
Best Intentions and All
The California Bar Exam carries a reputation for being extremely difficult. The pass rate for the February 2024 exam was 34%, slightly below the average historical result.
Under a plan to improve the experience for test-takers, the California State Bar created its own version of the Multistate Bar Examination section of the test and offered the option for remote testing. With a soft rollout late in 2024, the system was deemed ready for the next step with the February 2025 test date.
Unfortunately, rollouts can go awry, and the California Bar Exam in February 2025 was Exhibit A. It seemed like everything that could have gone wrong did, leaving the California State Bar scrambling to make things right as the chaos unfolded. The first step was reimbursing travel expenses for some applicants and offering a free retake for those who withdrew or failed.
At a meeting held on April 2, 2025, the State Bar Board of Trustees reached an agreement with Examsoft to provide exam software. They also revealed a list of test sites for the July 2025 California Bar Exam, pending approval from the CBE.
Comments from February applicants about the difficulties they encountered were heard as well, but perhaps most interesting to prospective attorneys was a discussion between the trustees about extending the Provisional Licensure Program.
When the Whole World Shut Down
In response to law school graduates who were justifiably rattled by the quarantine of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the California State Bar created the Provisional Licensure Program in October 2020.
Since testing for the California Bar Exam was unavailable, this provided an alternate path for recent graduates to practice law under the guidance of a supervising lawyer. It was amended in January 2021 to include law school graduates between 2015 and 2020 who scored between 1390 and 1439 on the California Bar Exam.
Under the Provisional Licensure Program, those who qualified and found an acceptable supervising lawyer could practice as a provisional attorney. They were required to include their status as a provisional attorney in every client conversation and on every legal document they were involved with. Completion of the State Bar New Attorney Training program was also mandatory.
Supervising lawyers needed a minimum of four years practicing law in the United States, at least two of which must have been in California as either an attorney or a law professor. In addition to other requirements, potential attorneys in the Provisional Licensure Program needed to complete 300 hours of supervised legal practice and receive a recommendation from their supervising lawyer to be admitted into the California State Bar.
Hitting the Pause Button
The CBE recommended extending the Provisional Licensure Program to cover those affected by the February 2025 California Bar Exam fiasco. The Board of Trustees wasn't ready to commit to that extreme a form of relief immediately. It was decided to table it until the test results from February came back. The reasoning is that if the scores reflect the historical average despite the difficulties, it becomes more difficult to justify extending the program.
While final authorization of the testing locations is expected on April 8, initial grading results are revealed on April 18. Future attorneys will have to wait until at least then to see if they can start pursuing a Supervising Lawyer.
Related Resources
- What To Do if You Don't Pass the Bar Exam (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
- What Is on the Bar Exam? (FindLaw's Law Students)
- Bar Exam Results (FindLaw's Bar Exam Center)
